


Decorations

by AliciaSinCiudad



Series: Tumblr-prompt stand-alones [13]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Absolute fluff, Gen, M/M, Space Halloween
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-05
Updated: 2017-11-05
Packaged: 2019-01-29 23:50:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12641811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AliciaSinCiudad/pseuds/AliciaSinCiudad
Summary: It's Bodhi's first Wakemeet (ie, Space Halloween), and he is very excited about it. Cassian does not think he's adorable. Not at all.From the Sniperpilot Halloween prompt: "My cute neighbor goes all out with the Halloween decorations. It’s going to look great if he doesn’t kill himself first."





	Decorations

**Author's Note:**

> This is quite late for the challenge, but you know, there's that whole real-life thing.
> 
> This is for Day 9 of "Thirteen Days of Sniperpilot Halloween". The prompt is _My cute neighbor goes all out with the Halloween decorations. It’s going to look great if he doesn’t kill himself first._

It was Bodhi’s first year in the Rebel Alliance, and many things were still new to him. Cassian had to keep reminding himself of this. Yes, Bodhi had been with them for months, but for the first year, each tradition would be novel. In a war, especially in a war that had been unofficially waging for as long as anyone could remember, benign novelty was hard to come by. One had to latch on to each instance, and wring every last drop of joy out of it, or one would go mad.

It was only natural that Bodhi would get excited about Wakemeet.

“So, you get to go around playing tricks on each other, and everyone gives each other sweets?” His eyes did not look adorable when they widened like that, Cassian reminded himself. They looked like perfectly normal eyes that anyone could have in their face.

Cassian should probably avoid being alone with Bodhi.

“And we _decorate._ ” Wedge was grinning ear-to-ear. “But with _weird_ decorations. _Spooky_ weird ones.”

“Or just regular weird,” Luke commented. “I don’t think anyone’s afraid of your fake Belvarian firegnats.”

“They’re _real_ Belvarian firegnats,” Wedge responded with an unholy glint in his eyes. “I’ve trained them to stay still, until someone gets too close, and then they swarm them in the face!”

“You have too much time on your hands,” Luke said, rolling his eyes, but he couldn’t stop his own goofy smile.

“Well, I’m going to out-decorate the both of you,” Bodhi challenged. Hands on his hips, chin lifted, he looked like a defiant child challenging an older cousin. Cassian had a brief image of Bodhi doing just that as a youth, and tried to imagine what it must feel like to have a family.

“That’s a tall order for your first year, Rook,” Luke warned, one blond eyebrow raised.

“You think I can’t do it?” Bodhi crossed his arms against his chest and blew an errant strand of hair out if his face. “I bet you a bottle of good Corellian brandy.”

Wedge laughed. “You’re on! Where can you even _get_ real Corellian brandy, good or otherwise?”

“First of all,” Bodhi took on a pedantic tone, belied by the spark in his eyes, “there _is_ no such thing as bad Corellian brandy, at least, not to hear Han Solo tell it. Second of all, I’m a cargo pilot, I have my ways. And third of all, I don’t have to worry about it, because I plan on winning this bet!”

Wedge and Luke just shook their heads, and walked off together.

Bodhi turned to Cassian. “So, how about you? Do you decorate for Wakemeet?”

Cassian barked out a laugh. “Do you know me at all? No. I do not decorate, I do not play pranks, and I certainly don’t give out sweets to people who come bother me in my quarters. You’d have better luck with General Draven.”

“Draven _does_ give out sweets, I’ll have you know. He’s already given me two honey rocks, and Wakemeet isn’t even for another three days.”

“Favoritism,” Cassian muttered.

“So, if you don’t plan on decorating your own quarters, then you can help me with mine.” Bodhi gave one of those winning smiles that Cassian was finding increasingly difficult to resist.

“Doesn’t that break the rules of the bet? You said _you_ would out-decorate the two of them, not you and a partner.” Bad choice of words. “I mean, co-decorator.”

“Alright, if you’re not my _co-decorator,_ at least you can advise me, can’t you? Or help me with pranking?” Bodhi’s eyes in no way resembled those of a ring-dog pup. Not even a little.

“Pranking wasn’t part of the bet,” Cassian said, but he could already feel his resolve slipping.

“Exactly. So you can be the distraction, while I steal all of Luke’s and Wedge’s socks.” Another trade-mark Bodhi grin. “I bet they’ll make really great Force-ghost puppets!”

 

 

Over the course of the next few days, Bodhi made many new discoveries. Such as the very important difference between _Belvarian_ firegnats, which glowed in blinking red and green lights, and _Drongaran_ firegnats, which did not glow at all, but which bit, causing a burning itch. (Bodhi refused Cassian’s offer of bacta-patches, insisting that they should be saved for serious injuries.) He learned that decorating with glitter-foil was a terrible idea, because it flaked off within hours and got on _everything._ He learned that the reason Draven was so generous with his honey-rocks was because they had an incredibly sour juice in the center, and Draven loved watching people’s reactions when they got to that part. He also learned that he quite liked the sourness after eating something so sweet, and faked innocence enough to get more honey rocks out of the General than Cassian would have thought possible. (Possibly Draven knew that Bodhi liked the sour part. Again, pure favoritism.)

The most important thing Bodhi learned was not to try setting up decorations with a ladder in a crowded hallway. Someone was bound to bump into the ladder.

Embarrassingly, that someone was Cassian.

In his defense, Cassian had been talking with Jyn at the time, plus he was still getting used to walking with a limp, and in any case, it was stupid to set up a ladder in a crowded hallway. Also, Cassian had been pointedly _not looking_ at Bodhi, because Jyn had figured out his crush, and he was afraid of her making him blush in front of the pilot.

It turned out that crowded hallways, not-quite-healed legs, ladders, and a refusal to look where he was going, were not a good combination.

Fortunately, Bodhi fell directly into Cassian’s arms.

“Sorry. Bum leg.” Between avoiding looking at Bodhi _and_ at Jyn, Cassian found himself staring very intently at the offending ladder.

“Stupid place to set up a ladder,” Bodhi muttered apologetically. “Er, you can put me down now.”

“Right. Right. Sorry.”

“How _is_ your leg, by the way?”

“Oh, it’s fine, hardly notice it most days. How’s the, er, firegnat bites?”

“Well, they weren’t bothering me, until you reminded me of them.” Bodhi cleared his throat. “You, er, you still haven’t put me down.”

“Right!” Cassian all but dropped Bodhi. “Anyway, I have to go, Jyn and I were just…”

He looked up. Jyn was gone.

“We were just… I was… I need to go find Jyn!”

 _Because I need to kill her,_ he added to himself, dashing off as quickly as his stiff leg would let him, leaving Bodhi to finish hanging the Force-ghost sock puppets from his door frame.

 

 

The evening of Wakemeet found Bodhi enjoying a bottle of fine Corellian brandy with Luke and Wedge. In the end, it had hardly mattered that Wedge had won the bet, since he shared his winnings with the other two anyway. Along with a handful of other friends, including Biggs Darklighter, Jyn Erso, and unexpectedly, Cassian.

“Sorry you lost the bet, Bodhi,” Wedge said, giving Bodhi a playful punch on the arm before taking a swig.

“It’s alright.” Bodhi shrugged, his face cheerful. “It was worth it.”

“How’s that?” Luke reached for the bottle, and took a swig himself, before passing it to Bodhi.

“I got to prank you two, I ate more sweets than I’ve eaten in three standard sol cycles combined, and I learned some very important lessons about decorating. And about entomology.” He scratched absently at the last fading firegnat rash. “I don’t think I’ve had this much fun in ages.”

Cassian nodded, taking the bottle. “Well, you’ve certainly been smiling more.”

Bodhi glanced up sharply. “I didn’t think you’d notice. I didn’t think you noticed things like smiles.”

“Just because I never smile myself doesn’t mean I don’t notice when others do it.” He took swig of brandy, avoiding Bodhi’s eyes. “So, Wedge, what are you going to do with those Belvarian firegnats anyway?”

“Oh, I’m keeping them around. I figure they can double as Founder’s Day decorations.”

Bodhi cocked his head. “What’s Founder’s Day?”

Wedge’s eyes lit up. “You don’t know Founder’s Day? It’s so much fun! We get to decorate with colored lanterns, and we give each other presents, and there’s this big feast…”

Bodhi was already grinning. “How long do I have to start preparing?”


End file.
